E 

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iilii^^wisiNi^i^|;j 





/ 

SPEECH 



. DELOS E. 

OF NEVADA, 



ASHLEY, 



9*v 
"73 



ON 



RECONSTRUCTION; 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 10, 



18GG. 



WASHINGTON: 
PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 

1866. 



Ml 



RECONSTRUCTION. 



The House, as in Committee of the Whole on the 
state of the Union, having under consideration the 
President's annual message — 

Mr. ASHLEY, of Nevada, said: 

Mr. Speaker : I am ill fitted to-day to speak, 
having a sore throat which almost prevents my 
talking at all. And I am unprepared, not 
knowing until this morning that the sun would 
ever rise on the day when I would have an 
opportunity to discuss this subject. But now 
an opportunity offering for me to speak upon 
the important matters pending before this 
Congress and the country, I cannot allow it 
to pass without saying something; and more 
especially do I desire so to do because in some 
respects 1 differ from many with whom I am 
affiliated here. 

We have passed through a war in regard to 
which it has been grandiloquently said the world 
never saw its equal. Certainly it is in many 
respects the most important that the history of 
this country records. To initiate a nation that is 
to exist for a little time and then vanish like a 
vision is an easy thing ; but to place a nation 
upon such foundation that it can stand the trial 
of time and demonstrate its adaptability to the 
wants of a community like ours, in a country 
extending three thousand miles from ocean to 
ocean, is a triumph. And such I believe to be 
this nation and Government of ours. 

But, sir, after the clash of arms has passed 
we must not beguile ourselves with the belief 
that everything is settled. There are insidious 
movements made in time of peace which are 
more dangerous than the attempts of men with 
arms in their hands to strike down a Govern- 
ment; because in the midst of war the feelings 
of all men are aroused, and they have th$ir 
eyes upon all the measures taken ; while in 
time of peace men are lulled into security, and 
plans that are laid to overthrow or change the 
Government are more likely to make progress. 
Such was the origin of the late rebellion, which 
assumed the gigantic proportions we have seen 
*nd grappled and crushed. 



Now that the war is over, we should be con- 
scious of the immense responsibility resting 
upon us in reinstating civil rule, and must look 
to the consequences likely to follow. No man 
need tell me that the American people will 
maintain a system which regards one third of 
the national territory as provincial. They will 
insist that Congress shall come speedily up to 
the work of bringing in the States lately in re- 
bellion to an equality with the rest. And if we 
fritter away our time, if we go home at the end 
of this session, without making some certain 
and effective provision for bringing in those 
States, if we differ among ourselves and insist 
upon a multitude of little matters, leaving the 
great and essential points of reconstruction un- 
determined, the time will come, and speedily, 
when the representatives of those States lately 
in rebellion will by some means secure their 
entrance into these Halls. Our Constitution is 
futile, if by law and resolution we can indefi- 
nitely, and at our caprice, postpone the day when 
it shall have equal effect, give uniform protec- 
tion, and insure to each State the right of self- 
government and the common and fundamental 
privilege of representation throughout all parts 
of our country. 

Now, sir, I know that to be so. Gentlemen 
may delude themselves with the idea that they 
can carry these southern States along in this 
way by military power. So they can just now- 
But. I tell you that even those men who have 
been in the ranks of the Union Army during 
the war will not always consent to be voting 
against the reconstruction of the Union upon 
a basis common North and South. And for 
that reason I desire to see some steps taken 
immediately to define the grounds we can safely 
insist upon as essential in reconstruction — a 
basis plain, short, just, honorable, generous, 
on which loyalty can rally, and to which only 
captious demagogues can object. • 

I have been satisfied for a long time that 
many of the measures proposed here cannot be 
passed. Why is it that we have spent here day 



after day and week after week over a Freed- 
men's Bureau bill? It is because we believed 
that something ought to be done to protect the 
late slaves. And practically we in this House 
and in the other branch of Congress showed 
our willingness to pass such a measure, pro- 
vided it should only extend to the States which 
had been in rebellion. 

But when it is proposed to pass a law which 
shall apply generally throughout the country, 
to States that opposed the rebellion as well as 
those that supported it, you find that members 
of our own party are not agreed upon such a 
measure. We had a bill before us yesterday 
and some days before for the protection of civil 
rights — one that had passed the Senate — and 
after an elaborate discussion here, that bill 
■ could not marshal a majority in its favor. Was 
it simply because it provided that no State 
should have the right to pass laws discrim- 
inating between its citizens? That was simply 
what we voted for in the Freedmen's Bureau 
bill. But when that same principle was incor- 
porated into a bill which would apply to our 
own States as well as the States which were in 
rebellion, then we are not willing the rule shall 
be applied. And why is it that men of my own 
party, from New York, Massachusetts, Ohio, 
and California vote in such manner as that? 
Do we occupy a position maintainable before 
the people of this country when we are willing 
to vote for a bill applicable to only the south- 
ern States in a certain manner, but will not 
vote that it shall apply to all the States? 

Now, if this bill in relation to civil rights is 
not proper or constitutional in all respects, then 
most assuredly the President was right in veto- 
ing the Freedmen's Bureau bill, because it im- 
posed the same terms upon a certain number 
of the States. I do not believe we have aright 
to specially legislate for some States in a man- 
ner not constitutional and proper for all. If 
we claim that the northern States may make 
class legislation, then the others have the same 
right. 

Sir, I am afraid we have been squandering our 
time away in these matters. We should look 
only to the essential requisites upon which we 
intend to insist. The Constitution of the United 
States is an instrument that we should not lightly 
touch in the way of amendment. There should 
be grave cause for amendment before we un- 
dertake to change it. If such grave cause ex- 
ists, then we should be as willing to amend that 
instrument as any other law. Several amend- 
ments to the Constitution were adopted soon 
after its formation ; and it has lately been 
amended so as to abolish slavery, that curse 
which brought on the war. 

The next important change which I think 
should be made is in regard to the basis of rep- 
resentation in this House. It should be made 
in a liberal spirit, in such manner that the best 
interests of the whole country will be main- 



tained. Let us not be influenced by men who 
say, "We admit the propriety of the change, 
but insist that it shall be made in a certain man- 
ner, so that our section of country shall not lose 
by it in any way whatever." An amendment 
has passed this House to put into the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, not the direct author- 
ity perhaps, but words by which you acknowl- 
edge the authority of States to make discrim- 
ination on account of race or color, in giving 
political rights and powers; an admission not 
offensively made in the Constitution as it stands, 
and a fact which, though true, it is in bad taste 
and policy to flaunt to the world in the Consti- 
tution of our Republic. I know that many men 
in this House voted for that amendment, while 
they execrated the policy and management 
which drove them to it. They desired to avoid 
occupying such a position ; but they were driven 
to it because of the sectional argument and 
power used here against a certain other proposi- 
tion based on the eternal principles of" justice 
and of right views of representation, on the 
pretext that it would lessen the relative power 
of certain States which happen to be located 
in glorious old New England. Now that South 
Carolina has lost her scepter, is the mantle of 
sanctity to fall around the prerogatives of two 
or three little States in the North? 

That other proposition was that representa- 
tion in Congress should be based upon the num- 
ber of citizens allowed the right to vote. Now, 
sir, as a fundamental principle of represent- 
ative democracy, I cannot see than any link is 
lacking in the demonstration that such system 
of representation is the true one. If this coun- 
try were so small iu geographical extent that 
all those entitled to share in legislative power 
could meet in one assembly, who would take 
part in that assembly? Would women, would 
children, would the insane, would slaves, and 
others excluded from the right of voting, act 
as members of such a democratic Legislature? 
No, sir, only those whom the country recog- 
nizes as having the right to vote in such a pri- 
mary meeting would be allowed to participate 
in that governmental assemblage. That being 
the fact, I ask, when the country has increased 
to such grand proportions that you cannot call 
a general meeting of that sort, what is the phil- 
osophic consequence in reference to represen- 
tation? 

Why, sir, that a certain number of individ- 
ual voters who do not present themselves in 
person may send a representative. If we were 
now establishing our Government, what would 
be thought of the proposition of ten men who 
should say, "True, we are only ten, but we 
claim the same representation as a hundred, 
because we have ninety women and children 
at home ? ' ' Why, sir, such a proposition would 
be scouted. In my estimation, there is no sense 
in the argument that because a man happens 
to be surrounded by persons who are not enti- 



tied to have their own voices heard, he should 
tor that reason have more influence and power 
in the (government than a man living in another 
section of the country and having no such 
surroundings. It is the argument of aristoc- 
racy, and strikes down democratic right by the 
same reasoning, and no other, which defends 
a privileged class in its claim of right to govern 
by reason of birth, wealth, and custom. 

But it was urged that the principle of repre- 
sentation based on voters could not be adopted 
because some of the New England States, or 
1 believe only one of those States objected on 
the ground, no? that they would lose repre- 
sentation directly, but that some other States 
would positively gain something. Sir, after all 
the glorious sacrifices that New England has ' 
made for our nation during the Revolution, and 
in the war of the rebellion, after all the laurels 
which she has won, I had hoped that she would 
manifest a spirit of liberality, and that, at the 
present crisis when it is proper, if not impera- 
tively necessary, that a change in the basis of 
representation should be made, she would not 
act the part of the dog in the manger, and object 
to a wise and just proposition, because some 
other State will realize under it some little 
advantage, which relatively the northeastern 
estates do not. 

t , T1 ™ f. r g u ment against that proposition was 
that California would gain two or three Repre- 
sentatives. Sir, what is the position of Cali- 
fornia. 1 hat is a State to which hardy, indus- 
trious, enterprising men from the eastern States 
have gone, and have developed a country which 
now exports between fifty and seventy-five mil- 
lion dollars of gold and silver per annum. She 
yearly contributes that amount to the national 
affluence. And is it maintained that a basis of 
representation, thus well founded in principle 
must be rejected because such a State will get 
two or three additional Representatives? I 
affirm that one hundred thousand men who are 
all producers, who are liable to be called into 
your armies, who are paying taxes on their in- 
comes, are entitled, as a matter of justice, though 
there are in their neighborhood few or no wo- 
men orelnldren or slaves, to more representation 
than twenty thousand men who happen to be 
surrounded by eighty thousand non- voters, the 
products of the labor of these twenty thousand 
being all absorbed in sustaining that commu- 
nity of one hundred thousand. Yet a principle 
of representation so well based received onl y 
thirty votes in this House. This prejudice 
against California is akin in its folly to the 
cupidity which slew the hen that laid golden 



. From that estimate I find the following facte 
in case the voter basis were r J — ™ 



adopted : 



Present 
bona. 

.... 5 



Maine 

New Hampshire 

Vermont ......".", 

Massachusetts "" 1n 

Rhode Island ZZZZZZ 2 

Connecticut.. , 

4 

27 

Michigan ^ 

Illinois '" i, 

Indiana •.■■ 

Iowa " r 

Missouri q 

Wisconsin c 



52 



Pennsylvania 2 4 

New York "" Q1 

California 



31 
. 3 

58 



Voter 
basis. 

6 

3 

3 
12 

2 

4 

30 

7 
15 
11 

5 

9 

7 

54 

24 

35 

6 

65 



The gentleman from New York [Mr. Conk- 
lixg] presented to this House an estimate, ap- 
proximately and practically correct, of the 
results of the various constitutional changes as 
to representation in case of their adoption. 



Thus it will be seen that the six New Eng- 
land btates gain three members, and the six 
western _ States named gain two, while New 
l ork gains four and California three. 

Thus the amendment harmonizes with nat- 
ural laws, and distributes political power in a 
just ratio to the natural centers of business 
and production, and makes the voter in any 
one State the peer in power with a voter in anv 
other State. J 

And it may be well to observe that as these 
estimates are based on the number of male res- 
idents in each State, and as the amendment 
pases representation on male citizen voters it 
is probable New York and California will not 
gain, by at least one or two each, so many as 
the estimate shows, because in these two States 
the alien residents are in greater ratio to their 
population than will be found in other States. 
This amendment leaves, as now, to each State 
the untrammeled power to regulate the right of 
voting in its own borders. A State may, as 
some now do, allow alien residents to vote, but 
they cannot be counted in the representative 
census, for it is not correct in principle or con- 
sistent with national security and dignity that 
aliens shall be represented and have a power 
in our Congress. 

The naturalization laws are liberal, requiring 
only a short residence sufficient to enable the 
foreigner to become acquainted with our insti- 
tutions, identified with our interests, and in 
sympathy with our success ; and he who pre- 
fers to be an alien ought not to enjoy political 
advantages equally with a citizen. 

This amendment, too, allows the States, in 
their discretion, to grant suffrage from time to 
time to such citizens as have become qualified 



6 



to exercise the right, and so fast as the privi- 
lege is accorded the State pro tanto gains in its 
representation. It also discourages the enact- 
ment of laws in the South or elsewhere requiring 
a long residence of persons coming from other 
States as a prerequisite to voting. Sound in 
principle, it has a happy adaptation to settle the 
differences, quiet the passions, and dispel the 
prejudices now standing in our way. 

As to the other proposition which passed 
this House for basing representation upon pop- 
ulation, exclusive of any races the members of 
which might be excluded from voting, let me 
say that, putting aside the question of its jus- 
tice, there was never any possibility that it 
could be embodied in the Constitution by the 
approval of the requisite number of States or 
could even pass this Congress. If the mem- 
bers of this House did not know this, they ought 
to have known it. I knew, as many others did, 
that we were only wasting our time in the dis- 
cussion and passage of such a proposition. If 
the theories broached in favor of immediate 
and universal negro suffrage are even true, 
what then? You h'ave not the power to enact 
the theory into law, while the exigency of the 
country is such that we should hasten to do the 
best within the range of possibility without 
delay. 

Sir, I believe that the time will come when 
negroes, becomingeducatedandacquiringprop- 
erty, will be allowed to vote ; but they must be 
introduced to the full enjoyment of the rights 
and powers of citizenship gradually. That pro- 
posed constitutional amendment does not pro- 
vide for any such gradual process. It declares 
that unless they be at once all admitted as voters 
the State excluding a poi'tion of them shall have 
no representation for even those allowed to vote. 

Mr. Speaker, I do not know that we shall be 
again called upon to act on this question ; but 
I know that the proposition to base representa- 
tionon voters is the only one that can be secured. 
If we are not willing to accept that rule, we shall 
obtain no change in the Constitution on this 
subject. If a proposition of this sort cannot 
be successful here at this session, I should like 
anybody to tell me when we can get a change. 
It must be a very sanguine imagination that can 
see in the future any time when the Union party 
will be stronger in this Congress than it is to- 
day. That time is far off, because now that the 
war is over there are numerous new questions 
arising to distract our constituencies ; questions 
of trade, of finance, of tariff, &c. 

That amendment basing representation on 
voters is founded in justice, is based on eternal 
principle, and it affords the solution for many 
difficulties which have arisen under our present 
representative system. 

It has been urged that we must control the 
southern States as to their representation, be- 
cause they are proposing, at least in Virginia, 



to declare that a man coming from another 
State must be a resident five years before he can 
vote. If they can do that, and perhaps they 
can, they can make a requirement of twenty 
years' residence to qualify as a voter a man go- 
ing there from another State ; and thus they 
might continue the political power of the State 
for twenty years in the hands of the present 
residents of the State. It is said that they are 
rebels. Granting that this is so, still they have 
the power in their hands ; and I do not think 
it will be stricken from their grasp. The effect 
of the voter basis will be that the representa- 
tion of a State in Congress will be reduced in 
proportion to the number of men that it ex- 
cludes from the exercise of the right of suffrage. 
If a hundred thousand loyal men from the 
northern States settle in the State of Virginia, 
and she does not allow them to vote, she gains 
no increased representation by the addition to 
her population. If the basis of representation 
were founded on voters, the States would be 
induced to forego the passage of such laws as 
those to which I have referred ; while a con- 
stitutional provision referring simply to the ex- 
clusion from voting on account of race or color 
would have no such effect. 

If we adopt the principle of basing represen- 
tation on voters, it will, as I have said, jDermit 
and encourage the introduction of negro suf- 
frage. Besides, by such a change in our Con- 
stitution, we would, adopting the whole propo- 
sition, establish the principle that direct taxe3 
shall be levied on property wherever it may be 
located, according to its value. 

That proposition was defeated, I believe, 
because California would gain by it two or three 
Representatives 

Mr. GRINNELL. _ My friend from Nevada 
will allow me to remind him that one of the 
great objections that was urged against the prin- 
ciple of representation based on voters was that 
it would offer a direct inducement to Maryland 
and Missouri to accord the exercise of suffrage 
to those who have been engaged in the rebellion, 
and who for that reason are now extended from 
voting in those States. 

Mr. ASHLEY, of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, 
the correctness of rules is determined some- 
times by a reference to extreme cases. Mary- 
land and Missouri, and I believe Tennessee, 
(which it is proposed to bring in) are in the 
same category in that respect ; they do not al- 
low those who have been engaged in the rebel- 
lion to vote. Now, sir, the great mass of those 
who were engaged in the rebellion have had an 
amnesty granted them ; they are not to be pun- 
ished. I think that very few practically will 
be punished ; certainly the great mass of those 
who were engaged in the rebellion will not be. 

This class of persons are left with all their 
rights of property ; and they constitute, if not 
in Maryland and Missouri, in some of the south- 



em States, perhaps nine tenths of the popula- 
tion ; and if we are to permit our system of 
popular government again in those States, we 
must allow the people resident thereto control 
their own local State governments. We can- 
not rule those States as conquered provinces 
by military law for any considerable length of 
time without violating the spirit of our Govern- 
ment and endangering its continuance, for mil- 
itary power soon forgets to loose its hold, and 
unbroken history tells how surely in the end 
liberty always perishes under martial rule. 

And, sir, if you wish to sustain the principles 
of your Government by punishing those men 
who have been engaged in rebellion, the proper 
method is to bring them before the courts to 
answer in accordance with law for the crimes 
which they may have committed. If they are 
not fit to be citizens, if they are not fit to be 
intrusted with power on account of crimes, 
you ought to have brought them before the 
courts and sent them to prison or the gallows. 
As long as you allow them to constitute four 
fifths of the community, as long as you tax 
them on account of their labor and wealth, as 
long as you allow them to hold property and 
I occupy the country, excluding other people, I 
tell you, as long as you care anything for the 
genius of our institutions, you must allow them 
to control their States, rebels though they were. 
If that is not to be the rule, why did we grant 
them an amnesty? Whether founded upon cor- 
rect principle or not, it will practically work 
out in that way ; and the only escape we have 
from the results of giving them increased rep- 
resentation on account of the abolition of sla- 
very is to adopt this amendment for the voters' 
basis. I think that answers the question put 
to me as to allowing rebels to vote. We do not 
allow, we simply cannot escape it. You can 
no more through Congress pass a law regulating 
suffrage in Tennessee or Arkansas than in New 
York or California. v 

I think, sir, it is a Strange era in the history 
of the American Government when, in Con- 
gress, we are to punish a portion of the people 
by depriving them of their political rights. I 
thought heretofore, when men had committed 
crimes, they were to be punished in the courts 
of law. If they presumed to make a rebellion, 
we opposed force to force, and in that manner, 
to some extent, they have been punished. Why, 
sir, all the institutions of the South were based 
upon slavery. It was the substratum of the 
aristocratic system which raised armies against 
the Government, and they have been punished 
by having that swept away. Indeed those men 
who had political power and were the rulers in 
the South are no more potent than I or any 
other humble individual in this country to-day, 
except so far as their individual weight and 
merit aids them. They have been punished in 
that respect. They have lost large numbers of 
their population. They have lost the prestige 



which made them leading men, and they are 
not to regain it except through petty divisions 
among ourselves we throw it into their hands. 

I do not believe we ought to vituperates 
each other. I do not believe we ought to take 
it for granted so soon, until it is fbree.l ,,,„,,, 
us inevitably, that men who have been with 
the Union party, and have made sacrifices for 
the Government, who came from the southern 
States and were as loyal and as brave in defense 
of this Union as men from any other section, 
are traitors to the Union cause or affiliate > itl 
rebels because their plan of reconstruction is 
not ours. I, for one, do not believe we have at 
this day the right to assume that the nun who, 
of all others, was loyal in Tennessee, and finally 
established a civil government there before the 
rebellion was entirely closed, is now false to his 
country. I will not join with those wlio believe 
we ought to drive him from our ranks by abuse, 
assuming beforehand he is a traitor. 1 say, no 
matter what men may do in this District, and 
in this atmosphere, it will be hard to make 
the voters of the country believe that Andrew 
Johnson, whom they elected Vice President a 
little more than a year ago, is a traitor. No, 
it cannot be. 

Traitor for what? Because he is not will- 
ing that negro suffrage shall be forced upon 
the country? I never heard he favored that 
measure, and certainly during the election the 
adherents of Lincoln and Johnson on the Pa- 
cific coast disclaimed holding such a doctrine. 

I do not believe negroes should have equal 
political power with other men given them now, 
because they are not yet fitted to vote. I can- 
not think that where they are in a numerical 
majority they ought to have the control of 
States; and you cannot make the people be- 
lieve men are traitors for that opinion. Negroea 
did not establish this Government and they did 
not maintain it. They gave us aid during the 
rebellion, and for that we gave them freedom ; 
and for that I am in favor of their education 
and improvement to qualify them for the ex- 
ercise of political rights. But I would not insist 
on their having those powers now. 

If we can get an amendment of the Constitu- 
tion of the character I have discussed, let it be 
adopted, for we can get nothing else. If that 
cannot pass we might as well stop. 

We ought to have an amendment to the Con- 
stitution that no State shall pay any debt con- 
tracted for the rebellion. With two or three 
thousand millions of debt, I tell you the south- 
ern States will have an important influence 
hereafter in urging the payment of that debt. 
Therefore we ought to have that constitutional 
amendment. 

Then we should have another constitutional 
amendment prohibiting the States from levying 
taxes to pay pensions to the men engaged in 
the rebellion against the Government of the 
United States ; because men who have devoted 



8 



their property and 'their time to the defense of 
this Government, who may happen to go into 
the southern States hereafter, should never be 
subjected to the least exaction to pay any of 
the obligations contracted by those who engaged 
in the rebellion. 

Then there should be an amendment of the 
Constitution prohibiting payment for the value 
of slaves that have been emancipated. 

And then, if you are to have any change of 
representation, let -it be based upon the num- 
ber of voters. 

With these amendments of your Constitution 
what else do you want? Do j 7 ou wish to have 
it said that you are going to exclude southern 
Representatives from this floor so long as you 
can maintain your power in Congress simply 
on the ground that the southern States have re- 
belled? If so, try it. But let me tell you there 
will be opposition enough to defeat that policy 
before three years pass away. 

Thus having stated what I consider all the 
essential provisions needed in the way of con- 
stitutional amendments, I insist we should leave 
the people of the various States to govern them- 
selves as heretofore. You cannot force negro 
suffrage upon the States either by statutory en- 
actment or constitutional amendment, and I 
do not believe in enforcing political penalties 
against those who took part in the rebellion 
any further than the law holds them personally 
responsible. The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 
Schenck] uttered the true doctrine in his re- 
marks on this floor when the constitutional 
amendment in regard to the basis of represen- 
tation was before this House, when he declared 
that " now is the golden opportunity for us to 
base representation upon the number of voters, 
and it should not be lost." There is a volume 
of wisdom in the remark. 

These amendments are to be adopted not 
as penalties, but as changes really desirable in 
themselves, and as the irreversible guarantees 
for future security which the nation has a right 
to demand as the fruit of its many sacrifices. 
You have now the opportunity to ingraft a 
principle in your Constitution as the basis of 



representation which will not be regarded as a 
penalty, for it affects all the States alike, and 
can be adopted because it is right, and not for 
the sake of punishment. Representatives ought 
to come from the ruling people, from the men 
who vote, and not from those who are excluded. 
Thus let this amendment be urged upon the 
South as the true principle of representative 
government, while it leaves them full control 
over the matter of suffrage in their own States. 
The experience of the last sixty years has 
demonstrated that a mistake was made at the 
outset, to some extent, by the framers of the 
Constitution in basing representation upon a 
class that were excluded from all participation 
in Government, and adopted only as a com- 
promise to secure the right to levy direct taxes 
on slave property, which- property now having 
ceased to exist, leaves the injustice of the pro- 
vision more marked than before. By this ex- 
perience let us profit, and introduce a rule need- 
ing no defense or explanation and enduring as 
the temple of reason. 

We must hasten in our policy of reconstruc- 
tion, for there is a growing impatience to have 
the country cpiieted. The late rebel States have 
accepted the abolition of slavery. Now, sup- 
pose complete restoration is proffered with these 
other bases of organic law — equal power and 
representation to every citizen voter through- 
out the nation ; no taxation to pay debts or 
obligations incurred in warring against the 
Union, and no gratuity or donation for services 
against our country; no compensation for loss 
or emancipation of slaves ; loyal men to be ac- 
cepted as Senators and Representatives from 
the now unrepresented States — ought not the 
offer to be accepted by those we have spared 
from the sword, and cannot we, the victors, 
generously grant these terms? Yes; and the 
loyal masses who sustained your Government 
through the late trials will not falter in your sup- 
port. Only present your plan of reconstruction, 
rather than theories and modes of exclusion, 
and the clouds that now darken our prospect 
will give way from horizon to zenith, leaving all 
bright in a restored and strengthened country. 



■ r i r 






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